Wildcat football fans will have to wait two more seasons before the team moves to an on-campus stadium. The new ACU stadium will be opening in 2017 instead of the expected 2016 date.
ACU Athletic Director Lee De Leon said a change in architecture firms resulted in the yearlong delay.
De Leon decided to change to the current architecture firm, HKS Architects, in April according to ACU Sports. HKS has built multiple pro and college stadiums: Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis Colts), AT&T Stadium (Dallas Cowboys), Apogee Stadium (North Texas) and new Amon G. Carter (Texas Christian University).
“They did TCU’s stadium, the Cowboy’s stadium and North Texas’ stadium, so they are familiar with this part of the country,” De Leon said. “We d
ecided to go that direction, (HKS) so that’s what delayed the opening from 2016 to 2017. We are very comfortable and confident that we are going to be ready for the first game of 2017 which is against Houston Baptist on September 19th.”
Students and fans should expect a change of campus scenery in the second semester of this year.
“We plan on breaking ground in January,” De Leon said. “We are finalizing our designs and the most important thing we are looking to do is finalizing the budget. Our goal is to set the budget by Sept. 1, which is Tuesday. The architects need four months between when we finalize the budget and begin construction.”
